Publications

September 2012
Article

Food Choices of Minority and Low-Income Employees: A Cafeteria Intervention

By: Douglas E. Levy, Jason Riis, Lillian M. Sonnenberg, Susan J. Barraclough and Anne N. Thorndike

Background: Effective strategies are needed to address obesity, particularly among minority and low-income individuals.

Purpose: To test whether a two-phase point-of-purchase intervention improved food choices across racial, socioeconomic (job... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competitive Advantage; Cost

Read Now

18 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

What Is an "Essential" Purchase for a Low-Income Family?

impulsive—than the exact same purchase made by higher-income Joe. In another experiment, a nationally representative panel of over 1,100 participants read about a soon-to-be new parent named Alex, who was described as either a high- or View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

February 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Tata Consultancy Services: High Technology in a Low-Income Country

Explores the development of the software services industry in India and the challenges facing the market leader as domestic competition intensifies and new countries attempt to replicate India's success. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Software; Information Technology Industry; India

18 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Are Banks the ‘Bad Guys’? Overdraft Fees Are Crushing Low-Income Customers

Payday lenders have long been cast as villains for charging consumers sky-high interest rates, leaving borrowers who live paycheck to paycheck struggling to repay loans. But conventional banks are just as guilty of using fees to penalize consumers, hurting View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

21 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Buy Now, Pay Later: How Retail's Hot Feature Hurts Low-Income Shoppers

likely to be highly risky.” You Might Also Like: Are Banks the ‘Bad Guys’? Overdraft Fees Are Crushing Low-Income Customers Did Pandemic Stimulus Funds Spur the Rise of 'Meme Stocks'? Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Financial Services; Technology

2005
Book

Building Assets Building Credit: Creating Wealth in Low-Income Communities

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Eric S. Belsky

Keywords: Assets; Credit; Wealth; Poverty

June 2014 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

Affordable Housing and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in the United States

By: Arthur I Segel and Nicolas P. Retsinas

This background note explores the basic themes surrounding the government's approach to providing housing: namely its shift from a supplier and builder of affordable housing to an approach that focuses on demand-side solutions and indirect subsidies to private... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Welfare; Government and Politics

fall 2006
Article

Business and Low-Income Sectors: Finding a New Weapon to Attack Poverty

By: James E. Austin and Michael Chu

Keywords: Poverty; Business Ventures

Teaching Interest

Overview

Chu's teaching focuses on businesses providing goods and services to the emerging middle class and low-income sectors that constitute the market below the well-served top of the socio-economic pyramid. In developed countries such as the USA, this may be 40-50% of the... View Details

Keywords: Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Emerging Markets; Low-income; Social Impact; Microfinance; Inclusive Finance; Impact Investing

September 2019 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Keroche (A): Fighting for Share in the Kenyan Alcoholic Drinks Market

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding

This case discusses the challenges faced by Kenyan alcoholic drinks producer Keroche Industries Limited in 2003, when the Kenyan government accused the company of manufacturing and selling substandard alcoholic drinks, revoked its liquor licenses, and shut down its... View Details

Keywords: Keroche; Alcohol; Wine; Manufacturing; Informal Market; Regulation; Illicit; Illegal; Shutdown; Factory; Low-income Consumers; Multinational; Local; Government; Allegations; Accusations; Negative Press; EABL; Tusker; Beer; SAB; Chang'aa; Naivasha; Rift Valley; East Africa; Lawsuit; Legal Battle; Business Ventures; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Production; Safety; Quality; Distribution; Small Business; Family Business; Crime and Corruption; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Income; Demographics; Geographic Scope; Geographic Location; Goods and Commodities; Government Legislation; Growth and Development; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Laws and Statutes; Lawfulness; Goals and Objectives; Consumer Behavior; Market Entry and Exit; Problems and Challenges; Social Issues; Poverty; Strategy; Competition; Entrepreneurship; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Kenya; Nairobi; Africa

09 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

When Climate Goals, Housing Policy, and Corporate R&D Collide, Social Good Can Emerge

For almost four years, Omar Asensio and his colleagues have been studying the impact of federal energy programs on low-income neighborhoods. The intersection of technology—artificial intelligence, in particular—and public policy has long been an area of focus for... View Details

Keywords: by Glen Justice

November 2004 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Patrimonio Hoy

By: Arthur I Segel, Michael Chu and Gustavo Herrero

Patrimonio Hoy is a program targeting the housing needs of the low-income population by CEMEX, a major Mexican company and a leading global cement producer. Originally conceived as a project to understand the customers in the self-construction segment better, a major... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Construction; Product Design; Globalized Firms and Management; Microfinance; Income; Market Entry and Exit; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Construction Industry; Mexico

July 2020
Article

Higher Economic Inequality Intensifies the Financial Hardship of People Living in Poverty by Fraying the Community Buffer

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Barnabas Szaszi, Marcel Lukas, David Smerdon, Jaideep Prabhu and Elke U. Weber

The current research investigates whether higher economic inequality disproportionately intensifies the financial hardship of low-income individuals. We propose that higher economic inequality increases financial hardship for low-income individuals by reducing their... View Details

Keywords: Economic Inequalty; Economy; Income; Equality and Inequality; Poverty; Civil Society or Community

September 2023
Case

Derek Aguirre

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman

Derek Aguirre is the executive director of a nonprofit organization in Detroit, Michigan that uses the sport of squash as a vehicle to support young people in low-income urban areas. The case discusses his path to pursue meaningful work and his reflections on the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Happiness; Well-being; Work-Life Balance; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise; Business Startups; Sports; Education; Mission and Purpose; Education Industry; Sports Industry; Service Industry; United States; Boston; Detroit

June 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Via Verde

By: Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Philip Berkman, Sean Liu, Jared Katseff and Shawn Tuli

Developers Jonathan Rose and Adam Weinstein were trying to determine which of three proposals to submit to the city of New York in response to a RFP to create an affordable housing project in the South Bronx. The site, referred to as Via Verde, was a 1.5-acre... View Details

Keywords: Jonathan Rose Companies; Affordable Housing; Property; Real Estate Industry; United States

Forthcoming
Article

In the Red: Overdrafts, Payday Lending and the Underbanked

By: Marco Di Maggio, Angela Ma and Emily Williams

The reordering of transactions from “high-to-low” is a controversial bank practice thought to maximize fees paid by low-income customers on overdrawn accounts. We exploit multiple class-action lawsuits resulting in mandatory changes to this practice, coupled with... View Details

Keywords: Overdraft; Payday Loans; Excessive Fees; Underbanked; Underserved; Income; Personal Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Banks and Banking

November 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Making Lemonade in Chicago's Troubled Neighborhoods

By: Nicolas Retsinas, Jazzmin Lamas and Lisa Strope

This case focuses on the complexities of building a real estate investment company in two Chicago low-income neighborhoods, Roseland and Englewood, during the foreclosure crisis in 2011. View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Investment Management; Financial Management; Social Issues; Investment; Real Estate Industry; Chicago

January 2007 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Farmacias Similares: Private and Public Health Care for the Base of the Pyramid in Mexico

By: Michael Chu and Regina Garcia-Cuellar

Farmacias Similares, serving Mexico's low-income sector, grew to $600 million sales and 3,400 drugstores while deep reforms to help the poor swept the public health system. Adjacent to each store, for $2 per visit, medical clinics provided access to doctors for 2.3... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Public Sector; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Poverty; Pharmaceutical Industry; Retail Industry; Mexico